Summary
The view of society as an organism, foundational to Franz Oppenheimer’s sociology in Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine: egoistic action is society’s bonding agent, a harmonic state is a natural balance of conflicted interests rather than their absence, and the sociologist as social physician removes obstructions so society regenerates to its natural healthy condition (Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, PDF p.46-47).
Details
- Oppenheimer insisted organicism was only a metaphor enabling heuristic investigation: it did not imply societies go through an organism’s life cycle and die of decay (PDF p.46-47).
- Liberal organicism traced national character to political and economic distinctions and not to inborn racial constitutions (PDF p.48).
- Rudolph Virchow’s cell research was, for Oppenheimer, groundbreaking and fundamental for organicist thought (PDF p.53).
Related pages
Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, Franz Oppenheimer, Rudolph Virchow, Liberal socialism